Yahoo Is Making ‘Great Progress’ on Sale, CEO Says

“We’re continuing to make great progress,” CEO Marisa Mayer said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday, adding that on a personal note, she’s “been very heartened by the level of interest in Yahoo.”

The Internet giant officially hung out its “For sale” sign in February, and for the last few months has been entertaining acquisition bids from prospective buyers ranging from media companies to private equity. As of mid-June, there are still three bids from private equity investors—TPG Capital, Advent International, and a joint bid from Vector Capital and Sycamore Partners—as well as AT&Tt, Verizonvz, and Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert. Yahoo is also working on a potential sale of 3,000 of its patents.

Yahoo has also explored spinning-off of its stake in Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba baba, but it abandoned the idea late last year after it failed to get an early green light from the Internal Revenue Service that it would be a tax-free transaction.

Nevertheless, Mayer tried to reassure shareholders during her opening presentation by citing a long list of metrics that showed growth while also highlighting its new products.

Sexism and Gender Equality Made Alphabet’s Shareholder Meeting Squirm

Very few executives climb to the heights that Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet, has. After a successful run as CFO of Morgan Stanley, she became the CFO of the world’s second-most valuable company in 2015. She’s credited with bringing a sense of fiscal responsibility to the moonshot company, playing a key role in its share buyback program, and restructuring it from Google to Alphabet GOOG.

That didn’t stop an Alphabet shareholder from directing a question today to “the lady CFO,” on stage at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Alphabet’s other top execs reacted by laughing nervously and shifting in their seats on stage.

It wasn’t until a few questions later that another shareholder pointed out that Porat is not the “lady CFO” but simply, the CFO.

Gender equality came up repeatedly at Alphabet’s shareholder meeting today. Earlier this year, Alphabet announced it had eliminated the pay disparity between its male and female workers. But some of the company’s shareholders believe that the company should include bonuses and stock-based compensation in those disclosures. The issue was presented to Alphabet in a formal proposal, which was declined.

All of the proposals from shareholders were voted down. In that way, Alphabet’s shareholder meeting was an exercise in futility. Thanks to the company’s dual-class stock structure, only owners of the voting class stock, which is largely comprised of senior management, can actually vote on proposals. It was no surprise that the handful of proposals put forth by management all passed. The shareholders’ proposals, which every year include one asking Alphabet to grant voting rights to all shareholders, were roundly defeated.

So if the whole thing is for show, why do shareholders bother showing up? For one, the free stuff—Alphabet swag and lunch. More than any other topic, shareholder questions to Alphabet’s top execs centered around the free food and the swag. One investor complained she didn’t get a hat or a mug, and so Google head of HR Lazlo Bock was dispatched to go get hats for everyone. One shareholder decried the “virtual reality baloney” of HP’s online shareholder meetings, thanking the executives for the free breakfast. Nobody mentioned Nest, a $3.2 billion acquisition from 2014 which just lost its CEO amid scathing reports.

Google Ventures President: There’s Obviously a Gender Problem

Then the topic of gender disparity came up again. Alphabet Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt brought out Bock, who reiterated Alphabet’s pay gap announcement. Schmidt noted, somewhat awkwardly, that Alphabet’s executives spent a lot of time “convincing ourselves that we were always right on this question” that a diverse workforce would lead to better investor returns.

“Speaking as your male executive chairman, I celebrate the others that are male and female in the company,” he added. Especially the voting members.

The raft of proposals up for vote at the two companies more than doubled to 11 this year, the latest sign that environmental concerns once considered peripheral by many investors have become mainstream. Even the most traditional shareholder groups are now urging companies to detail how they will plan for the future after 195 governments agreed in December to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) through combined national pledges to cut carbon emissions from fossil fuels.

“Companies like Exxon and Chevron, they’re clinging to bygone assumptions,” said Anne Simpson of CalPERS, which holds Exxon shares worth about $1 billion and has supported some of the measures. “This is their Kodak moment. If they want to still be in business in 30 years, they have to understand the changes that are taking place.”

Though “Kodak moment” was originally an advertising slogan for film and cameras, it can now refer to Eastman Kodak’s plunge into bankruptcy in 2012 after it failed to capitalize on the digital camera revolution. Simpson said Exxon and Chevron should ramp up investments in clean energy to avoid being caught by sudden technology shifts.

While BP Plc BP, Statoil ASA stohf and other European oil companies including Royal Dutch Shellrdsa have begun releasing myriad data points on how their businesses will respond to climate change, Chevron and Exxon have lagged them, critics say.

Success of any one of the climate-related votes at Wednesday’s meetings is not certain.

Exxon shareholders have never approved a climate change-related proposal, and last year they rejected by 79 percent a request that a climate expert be appointed to the company’s board.

Another measure, which would have the companies increase payouts to shareholders and stop investing in oil and gas deposits, appears doomed to fail.

Still, environmentalists and some investors, sensing the tide turning in their favor, hope to notch at least some victories.

Already, proxy advisory firm ISS has recommended shareholders of both companies support the resolutions, a key voice of support.

“We believe it’s incumbent upon us as owners to find out what they’re doing (on climate research) and how that will affect their long-term business plan,” said Pete Trannis of New York State’s comptroller’s office. “It’s almost impossible to imagine they haven’t been doing some of this already.”

The so-called proxy access measure, which says minority shareholders with a 3 percent stake should be able to nominate directors to the company’s board, could pass this year after winning support from mutual fund behemoth Vanguard.

More than a dozen oil companies have passed proxy access, though Exxon’s board has opposed it. Insiders at oil companies worry proxy access could lead to climate activists opposed to oil drilling being voted on to company boards.

Though both Exxon and Chevron say their climate disclosures are plenty robust, shareholders are demanding more at annual meetings, partly because the SEC has declined their requests to tighten its 2010 rule requiring all U.S. companies to address potential climate change impacts.

“For the most part the SEC has not been too responsive, so investors have had to turn to other methods,” said Jim Coburn of Ceres, a sustainability group that has advocated at the SEC for tougher climate standards as far back as 2007 with CalPERS, the New York attorney general’s office and numerous state treasurers.

Apple’s Tim Cook Doubles Down on Privacy, Dividends

Chief Executive Tim Cook said on Friday Apple Inc is committed to raising its dividend annually, a move designed to please investors but also a sign the world’s most famous technology company may no longer be a growth stock.

As concerns mount that growth in sales of iPhones may have peaked, major U.S. growth mutual funds have been among the largest sellers of Apple shares over the past six months or so, fueling speculation that the company’s days of supercharged growth have come to an end.

In January, Apple forecast its first revenue drop in 13 years and reported the slowest-ever increase in iPhone shipments as the critical Chinese market showed signs of weakening.

Its shares were flat in afternoon trading on Friday. They are down about 25% from highs 10 months ago.

Apple aaplreintroduced a regular cash dividend in 2012 after not paying one since 1995. Last year it paid out $1.98 per share in cash dividends, or $11.4 billion overall.

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Speaking at the company’s annual meeting in Cupertino, California, Cook also said Apple was “a staunch advocate for our customers’ privacy and personal safety,” as it fights a public battle with the U.S. government over access to the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

Apple filed a legal brief on Thursday asking a federal court in California to throw out an order it issued last week that the company unlock an encrypted iPhone used by Rizwan Farook, arguing such a move would violate its free speech rights, override the will of Congress and jeopardize the security of other Apple devices.

Schmidt, speaking at the company’s annual shareholder meeting Wednesday, defended the experiments as necessary for creating new and potentially blockbuster businesses. They may not seem relevant now, he said, but they will eventually as technology advances and circumstances like the rise in diabetes make them critically important.

“Most companies ultimately fail because they do one thing very well but they don’t think of the next thing, they don’t broaden their mission, they don’t challenge themselves, they don’t continually build on that platform in one way or another,” Schmidt said, according to Business Insider. “They become incrementalists. And Google is very committed to not doing that. We understand the technological change is essentially revolutionary, not evolutionary.”

Investors generally have no problem with Google’s search and ad businesses, its main money makers. But they have been more nervous about the company’s investment into more sci-fi projects and their unproven paths to profitability.

Schmidt emphasized that most of Google’s investments still go into the company’s core businesses like search and advertising.

Tim Cook’s speech and Lululemon shareholders–5 things to know today

Wall Street stock futures are higher today, while crude oil futures are lower on expectations that OPEC will decide to keep pumping flat out in a double-down effort to squeeze the U.S. shale oil industry.

Apple boss Tim Cook lashed out at Internet giants and government, calling them out for undermining constitutionally-guaranteed rights to privacy in a speech seemingly aimed at differentiating Apple’s corporate culture from the rest of Silicon Valley.

2. Nestle’s noodles are in hot water in India for the wrong reasons

Last year, it was China and fast-food sold through KFC and McDonald’s. Will this year’s stand-out food-safety scandal revolve around Nestlé’s noodles in India? Trouble has been brewing for the Swiss-based food giant for the last month, but has escalated sharply this week.

3. Jobs report preview.

Private payrolls processor ADP releases its May employment report today at 8:15 a.m. ET. Analysts expects the report to show that private firms added 200,000 jobs in May, a boost from the 169,000 positions added in April. ADP Chief Economist Mark Zandi said the disappointing showing in April was due to depressed oil prices and the surging value of the dollar which weighed on job creation. Zandi predicted that the effect would be temporary and job growth would reaccelerate this summer. The report precedes the Bureau of Labor Statistics report on Friday.

4. And more U.S. economic data.

A host of U.S. economic data comes out this week, leading up to the BLS jobs report on Friday. Look out for an update on the trade deficit from the Commerce Department at 8:30 a.m. ET. Economists expect the deficit to have dropped to $44 billion in April from $51.4 billion the month prior. Separately, at 10 a.m. ET the Institute for Supply Management releases its May non-manufacturing update. The index, where any reading above 50 represents expansion, is expected to have fallen to 57 from 57.8 in April

5. Lululemon Athletica shareholders meet.

Lululemon LULU shareholders gather in Vancouver for the company’s annual meeting. Over the past month, shareholders have been pushing for the athletic apparel maker to reform its corporate ways. Some investors have complained that there is a lack of transparency and the company needs to do more to improve its corporate governance. Lululemon avoided a proxy war last year after founder Chip Wilson agreed to sell half his stake to private equity firm Advent International, which two seats on the board. The board of directors promised it would commission an independent review of its policies and board make-up, but that hasn’t come to pass as of yet.

American Apparel’s feud with ex CEO takes another nasty turn

The war between American Apparel APP and its ousted CEO Dov Charney just keeps getting nastier.

The struggling clothing retailer roundly rejected Charney’s call for a special shareholder meeting to more than double the size of its board to 15 directors, calling it “invalid and improper.” The company added that the request was merely intended “to further Mr. Charney’s own self-interest.”

American Apparel said it received Charney’s request for the meeting on Friday, a day before it said it had adopted a one-year “poison pill” intended to prevent Charney from regaining control of his 249-store casual clothing chain. To further stymie Charney, American Apparel amended its company bylaws to make it more difficult for outsiders to nominate directors.

Charney, who owns 27 percent of American Apparel’s outstanding shares, disclosed in a Friday regulatory filing that it is working with New York investment firm Standard General to amass a controlling stake in the retailer. That stake, plus a bigger board that would include more sympathetic directors, would conceivably let the Montreal-born clothier get back in the driver’s seat at American Apparel.

Two weeks ago, Charney was stripped of his chairman role and removed as CEO in a stunning boardroom coup after the company alleged he had engaged in misconduct. Over the years, Charney has fended off accusations of repeated sexual harassment of employees and of discriminating against less attractive staff on the grounds that they undermined the “AA aesthetic.” In the last year, the company’s financial performance has deteriorated. It has had a cumulative net loss of some $270 million since 2010, and earlier this year, avoided a cash crunch by selling stock.

Despite a decline in comparable U.S. sales last year, a disastrous entry into the Canadian market that has so far cost it $1 billion, and a data breach that affected at least 70 million customers and hurt its reputation, the discount retailer’s investors re-elected its entire slate of 10 directors for another year, ignoring the recommendation of a prominent proxy advisory firm to dismiss seven out of the 10 directors.

And all three shareholder proposals, including one calling for an independent chairman, and another limiting executive perquisites, failed.

Interim Non-Executive Chairman Roxanne Austin told shareholders,”We need to significantly improve our performance.” And shareholders appear to have been placated by Target’s moves to do just that.

Since Target’s massive data breach was made public December, Target TGT has fired its CEO, and replaced its chief information officer and the head of its Canadian business. It has also created a tech advisory council made up of industry leaders to advise it on e-commerce, and created and filled a new position for a senior executive to oversee its tech security.

The retailer also gave shareholders so more candy, raising its quarterly dividend 21% to 52 cents a share.

Interim CEO John Mulligan, who is also Target’s full-time finance chief, outlined his priorities for the current fiscal year:

• Increase shopper traffic and sales in the United States, by introducing new merchandise more often.

• Improve its business in Canada, where Target has had inventory shortages and a lack of interest from local shoppers.

• Accelerate its online business and integration of e-commerce with its in-store retail business. Target gets around 2-3% of sales online, less than rivals like Wal-Mart Stores WMT and Kohl’s KSS.

GM’s CEO Mary Barra: No more firings over car recalls

General Motors GM won’t dismiss any more employees related to the company’s handling of a faulty ignition switch that killed as many as 13 people, CEO Mary Barra said Tuesday.

“We feel we’ve taken the appropriate actions as it relates to the ignition switch recall,” Barra told reporters prior to the annual shareholders meeting in Detroit.

GM fired 15 employees and disciplined another five after an investigation by attorney Anton Valukas found ongoing incompetence and neglect when it came to dealing with the faulty automobiles. Engineers and legal experts at the company failed to grasp the severity of the problem, Valukas said, which resulted in GM taking almost a decade to recall 2.59 million cars linked to the deaths.

“It is clear that no one did enough to protect these customers,” Barra told shareholders. And such carelessness “will not be tolerated.”

Kenneth Feinberg will oversee the victim’s compensation program, which will begin accepting claims on Aug. 1. Feinberg, who has overseen similar funds for victims of Sept. 11 and the BP oil spill, will provide GM with a compensation proposal that will help outline the total costs for GM, Barra said.

GM also said the pace of vehicle recalls, which has risen sharply in recent weeks, should slow down, although it expects a few more in the second quarter. The automaker also said the financial impact of the planned victim’s compensation program remains unclear.